LOS ANGELES (AP) - Henry Corden, the voice of leopard-suited caveman Fred Flintstone's "Yabba Dabba Doo!" for more than two decades, has died. He was 85.
Corden died of emphysema Thursday night at AMI Encino Hospital, his longtime agent Don Pitts said Friday. Corden's wife of nine years, Angelina, was with him at the time.

Born in Montreal, Canada, Corden moved to New York as a child and came to Hollywood in the 1940s. His first acting role was in the 1947 Boris Karloff film "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." Known for playing villains, he found small parts in movies, including 1952's "The Black Castle" and "The Ten Commandments" in 1956.

Corden moved into voice acting in the 1960s, and deployed his dialect skills in bit parts for Hanna-Barbera cartoons including "Jonny Quest," "Josey and the Pussycats" and "The New Tom & Jerry Show."

He took over as the lovable loudmouth Fred Flintstone when original voice Allen Reed died in 1977. Reed had been doing Flintstone since the character was created around 1960.

The cartoon's marriage themes echoed those of "The Honeymooners," and Corden tweaked his role to approximate Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden character, Pitts said.

Corden, who lived in Encino, had been working until his health suffered about three months ago. He can most recently be heard on ubiquitous cereal commercials yelling "Barney, my Pebbles!"

In addition to his wife, Corden is survived by five children and five grandchildren. A private memorial "party" is planned, Pitts said.
_________________Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Freelance, Ph.D., Th.D., D.F.S

SANTA ANA, Calif. - (KRT) - Thurl Ravenscroft of Fullerton, Calif., whose voice was known worldwide through his work in movies, TV and at Disneyland, died Sunday from prostate cancer. He was 91.

Tony the Tiger?

That was Ravenscroft.

Disneyland? Too many voices to mention, but Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion and the Enchanted Tiki Room were all graced by Ravenscroft's pliable, unique voice.

Movies? How about "Cinderella," "Dumbo" and "Lady and the Tramp"?

"Disneyland wouldn't have been, and wouldn't be, the same without him," said former park President Jack Lindquist. "It's all part of the experience. You can't go home with a ride, but you can go home with a memory, and part of that is the audio - the sound part of it. His voice was one of the things that made it all come alive."

Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft was born Feb. 6, 1914, in Norfolk, Neb. He moved to California in 1933 to study interior design at the Otis College of Art and Design. While in school he was encouraged to go into show business and auditioned at Paramount studios to be a singer.

By the mid-1930s, he was appearing regularly on radio, first on a program titled "Goose Creek Parson." In the late 1930s, he appeared on the "The Kraft Music Hall" with Bing Crosby, singing backup in a group called the Paul Taylor Choristers. That group eventually became the Sportsmen Quartette.

After military service during World War II, he returned to Hollywood, later becoming involved in the Mellomen singing group, and began a career in radio, movies, television and commercials. The group could sing anything from rock `n' roll to bebop to barbershop, and it performed with a list of stars including Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley.

In 1952, Ravenscroft achieved a measure of immortality, thanks to a TV commercial.

"I'm the only man in the world that has made a career with one word: Grrrrreeeeat!" Ravenscroft roared in a 1996 interview with The Orange County Register. "When Kellogg's brought up the idea of the tiger, they sent me a caricature of Tony to see if I could create something for them. After messing around for some time I came up with the `Great!' roar, and that's how it's been since then."

Ravenscroft's involvement with Disneyland goes back to opening day in 1955, when he was the announcer for many of the ceremonies and events. His voice has been heard on numerous Disneyland attractions and rides, including Adventure Through Inner Space (1967-1986). He was the original narrator on Submarine Voyage.

In 1966, Dr. Seuss and Chuck Jones teamed up to do "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" for CBS. Ravenscroft recalled the Grinch fondly, saying, "That was my chance to prove I could really sing." The success of the Grinch led to other projects with Dr. Seuss, including "Horton Hears a Who" and "The Cat in the Hat."

His singing career continued into the 1970s. As a member of the Johnny Mann Singers, he sang on 28 albums, appeared on television for three seasons and performed for President Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev at the White House.

One of Ravenscroft's biggest local claims to fame undeniably was his narration of Laguna Beach's Pageant of the Masters, a job that began in 1973 and lasted for two decades. He told the Register upon his retirement that it was his favorite gig of all time.

"I've learned more about art doing the Pageant than I ever did in art school," he said.

"He was a gentleman who was beloved, and is still beloved, at the pageant," Duling said. "He was considered the grandpa of the pageant. Everyone backstage adored him."

Ravenscroft possessed, said Duling, "one of the great basso voices, so distinctive. For me, it was like writing music for an instrument that has a few tones that are absolutely unmistakable. It was so distinctive that you had to play to its strengths. He could bring a kind of deep, resonant reverence to something that deserved proper respect. Also, in his folksy manner, he could be the grandpa that everybody loved," Duling said.

Another fan with memories is Werner Weiss, Web master of www.yesterland.com, an Internet site that highlights popular Disneyland attractions, including many that no longer exist.

"(Ravenscroft) is one of the busts in the Haunted Mansion," Weiss said. "He's uncredited, as so many cast members at the park are, but it's his face and voice. It's unusual. You actually SEE him in that attraction, a man whose voice you're heard a thousand times."

June, Ravenscroft's wife of 53 years, died in 1999 at age 80. He is survived by two children, Ron and Nancy, and four grandchildren. Services are pending.

The actor was 97. Neither city officials nor the Vienna hospital where he died disclosed the cause or date of his death.

Askin was best known for his role as the Nazi general who constantly threatened to send the prisoner of war camp's inept commander, Col. Wilhelm Klink, to the Russian front because of his stupidity.

"Beverly Hills school children would call after me, 'Klink, Klink!'" Askin wrote on his Web site. "People driving through Beverly Hills who saw these children raising their arms in the Hitler salute couldn't continue out of sheer shock and amazement and brought traffic to a standstill."

Born Leo Aschkenasy in Vienna on Sept. 18, 1907, Askin worked as a cabaret artist in the 1930s before fleeing first to France and then to the United States to escape persecution by the Nazis.

He had roles in dozens of films, including Billy Wilder's "One, two, three" and the Austrian director Fritz Lang's "Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse." In the course of his career, he appeared opposite Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Peter Ustinov.

Askin took up residence in Vienna in 1994, returning to his roots in cabaret. He also took roles in Vienna's Festwochen and the city's second opera, the Volksoper.

He was decorated with Vienna's Gold Medal of Honor, one of the most distinguished prizes the city offers.

"We have lost a huge actor and artist and a wonderful man," Mayor Michael Haeupl said in a statement.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Anne Bancroft, who won the 1962 best actress Oscar as the teacher of a young Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker" but achieved greater fame as the seducer of her daughter's boyfriend in the 1967 movie "The Graduate," has died. She was 73.

She died of cancer on Monday at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, spokesman John Barlow said.

Bancroft was awarded the Tony for creating the role on Broadway of poor-sighted Annie Sullivan, the teacher of Keller, who was born deaf and blind. She repeated her portrayal in the film version. Despite her Academy Award and four other nominations, "The Graduate" overshadowed her other achievements.

Dustin Hoffman delivered the famous line when he realized his girlfriend's mother was coming on to him in a hotel room: "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me ... Aren't you?"

Bancroft complained to a 2003 interviewer, "I am quite surprised that with all my work, and some of it is very, very good, that nobody talks about `The Miracle Worker.' We're talking about Mrs. Robinson. I understand the world ... I'm just a little dismayed that people aren't beyond it yet."

Her beginnings in Hollywood were unimpressive. She was signed by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1952 and given the glamour treatment. She had been acting in television as Anne Marno (her real name: Anna Maria Louise Italiano), but it sounded too ethnic for movies. The studio gave her a choice of names; she picked Bancroft "because it sounded dignified."

After a series of B pictures she escaped to Broadway in 1958 and won her first Tony opposite Henry Fonda in "Two for the Seesaw." The stage and movie versions of "The Miracle Worker" followed. Her other Academy nominations: "The Pumpkin Eater" (1964); "The Graduate" (1967); "The Turning Point" (1977); "Agnes of God" (1985).

At somepoint in the pre-cable 1970's, back when our tv channel choices were only between ABC, NBC, or CBS, one of those networks had a special on the History of the movies.

One of the scenes they showed was the early scene from the Graduate, where Mrs Robinson entices Ben into her bedroom, and seduces him. It was a surprisingly sexual scene to be shown on prime time television for that era.

I swear that next day, every boy in school who watched that special was talking about Mrs Robinson, talking about how you could see the tanlines on her breast. Although they showed probably less than a minute of that scene, images of her nudity and seduction likely lingered in our minds for a long, long time.

I may have seen Anne Bancroft on a TV showing of the 'The Miracle Worker', but if I did, I have absolutely no memories of it.

Born - January 28, 1910
Died - January 28, 1973
John Banner is perhaps best remembered for his portrayal of the Luftwaffe prison camp guard Sergeant Hans Schultz in the TV series "Hogan's Heroes" (1965-1971). But there remains a certain irony: He was Jewish.
John Banner was born in Vienna on January 28, 1910. Because of his accent, this Austrian-Jewish actor spent much of his Hollywood career playing Nazis, starting with the propaganda drama "Seven Miles From Alcatraz" (1942). He acted in a dozen American films---both comedies and dramas--before landing the role of Sergeant Schultz.

Another bit of irony, besides John Banner being Jewish and playing a guard in a POW camp... is that like his co-star on Hogan's Heroes, Robert Clary.... John Banner was in a concentration camp prior to his release and travel out of Nazi Occupied Germany (in the early part of the Nazi control of Germany, a trip to a concentration camp was not an automatic "death sentence"). So John Banner was lucky to leave just before the Nazi policies changed.

Sadly, he died of abdominal hemorrhage on his birthday in 1973 in his native Vienna.